Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a screening bucket and more specifically it relates to a screening bucket system for efficiently and aggressively screening debris out of otherwise clean materials such as soil, gravel, or sand.
Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the related art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such related art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
The need to sift or screen debris out of a particulate material such as dirt, sand, or gravel is prevalent across a wide range of industries. For example, dirt is often sifted for landscaping work, backfilling trenches, and the like. As a further example, it is often desirable to clean sand on a beach of impurities such as trash or tar balls through sifting the sand.
Previous sifting machines typically utilize rubber to suspend a screen floor. These types of sifting machines cannot shake large loads (such as 1000-1500 lbs) efficiently or aggressively. Loader buckets with solid welded-in screens force the operator to lift and drop the whole loader in order to screen the materials, which can be very tedious due to lack of efficiency and prematurely wear out the loader.
Most sifting machines utilize vibration for sifting of materials. Vibrational sifting machines are inefficient when used with large, heavy, or wet loads of materials. Additionally, high-flow hydraulics are often necessary to support the high speed vibration of the whole machine, which limits the loaders available to power the screen.
Because of the inherent problems with the related art, there is a need for a new and improved screening bucket system for efficiently and aggressively screening debris out of materials such as soil, gravel, or sand.